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The idea of perfection through science is a pretty common theme in feminist science fiction. In my opinion, it’s the authors (which are all women) critiquing the pressure put on society, by society, to achieve an unrealistic eugenic-like form. This is no exception to Jeanette Winterson’s TheStone Gods. The idea of genetically altering yourself to look more like a twelve year old because that’s what someone wants, may seem a bit exaggerated, but it’s honestly not that far out of the park. The idea of attaining this pinnacle state of what’s wanted of you and being somewhat of a ‘god’ is unrealistic and unattainable yet we strive to perfect ourselves and our species. I think that “back in the day” when science fiction like this was written is was more so because it wasn’t really something that people could see happening, but I think that because Winterson wrote it only a few years ago it’s almost a wakeup call in that we are closer than we ever imagined we would be. There was one quote in the book that particularly struck me as very real and very blunt. “Humans have given all their power to a ‘they’” (Winterson 65) We absolutely do. Aside from any gene altering topic, we absolutely give society the power to decide how we should be. The picture in my article is from an extremely controversial Ralph Lauren ad where they altered their photo so much that the model looks alien in her shape. People look at these ads and as much as you can say that you know it’s not realistic, subconsciously you assimilate it to that pinnacle you’re striving for. The idea that we are no longer personally in control of what our image is as a society is extremely scary. The power is all in the media to construct our reality and the idea of the average person is portrayed as this alien model…as this stone god.